Orkney Islands Council has given DSM, a UK-based demolition and decommissioning company, the opportunity to consider Lyness as a potential base for North Sea oil and gas decommissioning work.

The Council said on Wednesday that the project is at an early stage in its development but has the potential to bring significant inward investment and economic benefits for Orkney.

DSM has already held early discussions with the Council and visited Lyness to carry out an initial assessment.

DSM believes that Lyness can be a base for its activities in northern Scotland and that the broad base of skills and resources available locally are of great interest to the company.

The Council added that the company will engage with the Council, local businesses, and the Hoy and wider Orkney community as it develops its proposals. DSM will also engage with the oil and gas sector to determine potential business for a new facility and undertake the environmental assessment and feasibility testing processes which are needed to ensure the sustainability of such a development.

Council Convener Steven Heddle said: “This project has the potential to create significant employment, a range of business opportunities for local companies, and considerable economic benefits for Orkney as a whole.

“There will be a growing demand for oil and gas decommissioning facilities in the years ahead. Lyness and the natural deep-water harbor of Scapa Flow, with their location close to the North Sea, are ideally located to serve as a potential base for work of this kind.

“We now look forward to working with the company. Our priorities will be to ensure that Orkney benefits economically and that a development of this type is approached in an environmentally responsible manner.”

On Tuesday, Council officials, councilors, and DSM’s Graham Crowe discussed the project at a meeting of the Graemsay, Hoy and Walls Community Council to which the whole community was invited.

Councillor James Stockan, Chairman of the Council’s Development and Infrastructure Committee, representing Stromness and the South Isles, said: “It was important that representatives of the local community heard first about this potentially exciting development for the island.

“It could result in many benefits, not least in terms of the jobs it could bring to the island and more widely across Orkney, and I welcome the company’s commitment to creating as much local employment as possible.”

Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com